The Pros and Cons of Outsourcing Your Facebook Management

Facebook can be a handy marketing tool, but it’s time consuming. When running a business (especially as the owner), you have to balance your many tasks and determine the best use of your time. The question comes up frequently, “Is it okay to outsource social media to an expert?” You will always be best at serving your customers, but there are arguments for both sides of this conversation.

Outsourced social media marketing

When you outsource your social media (such as content creation and daily management), your biggest benefit is that you can hire someone who is familiar with the tools and how to effectively use them. Social media consultants usually end up in the business because they enjoy social media and are natural at executing social networking and communications.

The negative is that they are likely serving several clients at the same time and can’t spend all their time on your company. Another negative is that they may not be fully familiar with your company, its culture, and its goals. It may take an outside resource weeks or months to learn the nitty-gritty of your business and your audience the way you do.

Finally, be sure you’re working with a person or agency that truly understands the space. We’ve seen many agencies that say they can handle a social media campaign but either aren’t aware of Facebook’s basic terms of service or ignore them because they’ve seen others ignore them. If you’re building a reputation on Facebook, you want to be sure the people helping you aren’t hurting your brand’s integrity.

In-house social media marketing

In-house people often find that their jobs can call them to many different activities. It’s rare when someone can direct his or her full attention to just social media engagement, especially if that person is the business owner. A business owner frequently has more immediate “fires” to put out, so social media management gets put on the back burner. For this reason, in-house Facebook management needs to come with discipline.

The connections and influence you build yield great long-term value. The biggest benefit of managing social media in-house is that you are always your best advocate and the best person to connect with your customers.

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